This invention relates to vehicle seats. More specifically, this invention relates to seats for agricultural tractors, garden vehicles, construction equipment, industrial and recreational vehicles and boats. In such non-automobile applications, a seat is most commonly exposed to the elements due to the openness of the design of the vehicle to which it is applied. The seat therefore is exposed to the rain, and water can very easily collect in the seat, thereby making the operation of the vehicle extremely uncomfortable. At the very least the operator is inconvenienced by having to drain or dry the seat before resuming use of his vehicle after a rain.
A further discomfort for the operator of such vehicles is that caused by a lack of ventilation for the back. Particularly in warm weather, the sweating of the operator can cause him great discomfort.
Common expedients for increasing ventilation of the back have been employing a metal seat with a plurality of apertures formed therethrough or employing a seat with a specially woven fabric cover such that air spaces are created adjacent the back of the operator. However, the metal seats are hard and uncomfortable, and the fabric covers are somewhat expensive to make.
To provide for drainage of such seats, an aperture has been formed through the base or horizontal portion of the seat adjacent the upright or back portion of the seat. The aperture has detracted from the comfort of the operator. Furthermore, particularly in seats employing fabric or vinyl covers, metal grommets have been necessary to seal the cover to the base of the seat around the aperture. Construction of the seat has therefore been made more costly. Also, the cover of the seat has tended to tear or rip about the aperture.